An Iraqi journalist was sentenced to three years in prison for throwing shoes at former President George W. Bush.

Muntazer al-Zaidi, 30, appeared at the Iraq Central Criminal Court in Baghdad today and pleaded not guilty to charges of aggression against a foreign leader during an official visit, President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said on the party’s Web site.

The correspondent for Al-Baghdadiya, an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, threw his shoes at Bush on Dec. 14 during a news conference in the offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Bush ducked and wasn’t struck.